www.iva.co.uk

There is quite an interesting post on the home page of the forum entitled 'Apology to Melanie Giles'.

I am now even more interested to know exactly what criteria the IVA Council are applying in targeting clients of Insolvency Practitioners.

Both small firms and large firms have been targetted by them.

I am of the opinion that they have plundered the Individual Insolvency Register and indiscriminately written to debtors in IVA's in the hope that they can generate business for themselves at the fear and expense of the debtor. They make allegations that they cannot substantiate. Now one IP has done what the IVA Council probably least expected ... stood up to them, isn't it time some others did too?

Thank you Cybus for bringing this to my attention. I was not aware of the post.

I challenged the IVA Council's letter to my clients (which I assumed had been sent to all of them and not just a handful, but was only actually send to 8 in total). Fortunately a couple of my clients rang me to advise me that the letter had been sent, and I took the matter up with the Council directly. You will see that there is a string of correspondence on that web-site with regard to my efforts to extract the client list and a letter of retraction. At long last I am very grateful to have received a gracious reply from Malcolm Brown, which will be circulated to those people whose privacy was taken advantage of by such inappropriate correspondence.

When I first became aware of this firm's activities, at the time that they were using letterhead and typeface very similar to that used by the Insolvency Service, after several attempts I did manage to make contact with their representative to discuss the nature of their business.

I am open-minded, and believe that there is room for all opinions to be aired within our profession, however I did not agree with the way this the Insolvency Register was deliberately used to fire-shot their message. My views also extend to other organisations who use the Register for such purposes.

Over the last couple of months I have been watching the Council's own forum with some interest, but have decided not to make further contributions as I am concerned about the nature and tone of some of the postings - particularly of those who are professionals and purport to be supportive of the Council.

I would stress that this is purely a professional and personal opinion, but would suggest that if anyone does seriously feel that they have been provided with inappropriate advice, that they take this up with the firm concerned or the IP's regulatory body.

Hopefully other IP's will follow in your footsteps and begin to challege The IVA Council [:)]

What is the IVA Council, are they a company trying to make money out debts are do they monitor what happens in the IVA profession?

They claim to be a group of individuals out to champion potential mis-selling of IVAs within the insolvency profession. Their advice appears to state that people with no assets should declare themselves bankrupt rather than enter into a ongoing payment arrangement with creditors.

Can I stress that they have no legal, professional or official status.

I understand now

The fact they call themselves IVA Council makes you think they have an official status, thats mis leading in it self, yet they have the cheek to say IPS mis sell IVAS.

To the IVA Council - does kettle, black ring any bells

Just spent the last 30 minutes on the IVA Council website, I'm astounded at some of the advice given by their 'experts', apart from being unable to spell they obviously don't know what they are talking about.
We 'debtors' have enough to contend without being pestered by these pariah's, I will stick with this forum and and continue to seek the advice given by the professional experts who subscribe to it, their advice has done me no harm up to now.
I hope the IVAC will be exposed and barred from accessing the Insolvency Service website, if they can't find us they can't hurt us [:(!][:(!][:(!]

Why dont people who have been contacted by IVAC, speculatively, make a formal complaint to the OFT ? There are rules to prevent this !

Don't forget to sign up on Andy's petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/InsolvReg/
if you feel strongly about this.
Only 259 signatures so far.. lots more needed to make an impact!
Thanks,
admin.